Although most gamers will be looking forward to getting their hands on StarCraft II to play the game, it also has another gem of a feature called the Galaxy Map Editor. The video above was a sneak preview of the editor and its diversity given at BlizzCon 2009.

At the same time as the StarCraft II beta went live last month so did the first version of the Galaxy Map Editor. And it hasn’t taken users long to get to grips with it. The most impressive game created with it so far is a Touhou shmup clone which can be seen being played in the video below:

With 3rd person games, shmups, and StarCraft II mods all possible with the editor, Blizzard could have an unexpected hit on its hands here away from the core StarCraft II experience.

The BlizzCon video showed a lot of promise, but the games were put together internally by designers experienced in using the tool. The Touhou clone was created less than a month after the Map Editor saw a beta release, so it is clearly capable, and relatively easy to learn for a determined designer/programmer.

Hopefully we will see a number of games created using the editor. It works for Blizzard as more copies of StarCraft II will be sold to play them. It may also work for the modders as there’s nothing to stop Blizzard picking some of the best games made using the editor and offering to release them.

With development platforms including Unity and Unreal Engine already available for free, it really is a great time for budding game developers to get access to professional tools.

Reader Comments

Phizzle

So . . . maybe this will tie in with a “world of starcraft” release . . . in time. If the engine is usable to this extent already, I would have to imagine that, at the very least, devs aren’t going to pass the idea up. I could see a set of 10 or so missions in 3rd-person released for a cheap price in order to check the penetration rate for that type of game. If so, would this engine be as playable online as the RTS equivalent view? Maybe that’s the real question . . .

Zach

“It may also work for the modders as there’s nothing to stop Blizzard picking some of the best games made using the editor and offering to release them.”

A good example of this is a few really good Half Life mods which are now like games being sold all on there own.. The thing with Blizz and Battle.net 2 is this wont happen with Blizz…

Except…

Blizz won’t be releasing them… Battle.net 2 has this feature where you can upload your maps/mods.. and offer them up for dl, for free or for a charge.. and a %/or all of proceeds go directly to the maker of said map/mod. With this feature, Blizz has no need to “buy” mods and sell them.